


Different This Time

by beesquestionmark



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M, Too Many Beds, city woman moves to country (hates it the whole time), comforting someone so you can beat them up yourself, hate triangle, really nice and sweet guy who only hates you, token straight friend (olaf)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28602807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beesquestionmark/pseuds/beesquestionmark
Summary: One shot with reverse tropes (see tags). In an attempt to save their relationship, Anna and Hans move out to the countryside, where Anna has a series of adventures that force her to reconsider what she wants out of a husband, and the sort of life she wants to lead. Token straight friend Olaf tries to open a wilderness camp for men to cook beans over an open flame.
Relationships: Anna/Hans (Disney), Anna/Kristoff (Disney)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Different This Time

“Hans!” Anna yelled out the window, at his retreating form. “Hans there’s not even _furniture_ in this house!” 

“I’ll pick some up!” he said, as if she just asked for him to grab chips from the store. 

“You didn’t plan for this?” she called back, but he kept walking. “Where are you going?”

He waved an arm at her dismissively, but didn’t even turn around. He just got in the car and drove off, leaving Anna in their rental home that she didn’t like, in the countryside she didn’t ask to be in, with their four suitcases and a heart full of regrets.

Hans had _promised_ her that this time would be different.

Granted, Hans had never done a lot worth believing in. Their relationship had been on the rocks since the beginning, when he cheated on her on their one-month anniversary. He’d sworn it would never happen again - provided she was willing to actually start putting out, which is the only reason he did it in the first place. Anna agreed, Hans called it a compromise, and they’d been dating for about a year and a half at this point, with a minor crisis about every six weeks. 

After their most recent blowout, Anna really wanted to break up. She was tired of fighting. She was tired of him lying. But Hans told her that the issue wasn’t them - it was their environment. It was the big, overstimulating, demanding, grimy city that they lived in. If they were somewhere picturesque - the rolling hills of Italy, the beaches of Greece, the lavender fields of Provence - somewhere much more beautiful and slow-paced, then they’d have nothing to do but be in love with each other. He convinced her to move out to The Countryside, which was none of those three places, just for a few months. She could work remotely. His job was mostly e-mail anyway. Everything would get better.

Anna didn’t want to leave The City, but she went anyway. 

In almost any other scenario she wouldn’t have, but Hans had asked this of her right after her 33rd birthday, which had been the year she envisioned herself celebrating the 3rd birthday of a child that did not exist - 33 and 3, 333 like the angel number, you know? Anna had always assumed she’d marry young, she’d thought about marriage as long as she knew it was a thing. After repeated conversations with Elsa about her career and Making The Most of Her Twenties (whatever that means), she decided to postpone having kids until she was 30. Have a nice long honeymoon with her future husband before the kids came. 

But now she’d rounded past 33 and there were no children, there was no husband, there was just Hans. Now it was too late for her original plan, and she could feel the eggs in her ovaries drying up each day. Last week she worried that she could feel the very last egg shriveling up, but it was just indigestion. 

So, yeah, she wanted things to work out with Hans.

But instead of the quaint country house he’d promised, it was a three-room ranch home rental with no furniture, a slight mildewy smell, and a fridge with a container of baking soda and a jar of mustard in it. ‘Heaven on earth’ Hans had proclaimed it once they stepped inside, and Anna had to fight the urge to kick him.

…

Anna didn’t want to wait for Hans to come back with whatever lousy furniture he’d manage so she walked into town, which appeared to be two streets of shops and a Walmart. Fields stretched out as far as she could see, and the flatness made her feel surrounded for reasons she was sure she couldn’t explain.

“I hate grass. I hate looking at it. It’s disgusting.” Anna said to no one in particular. “I wish these buildings were 20 stories taller.”

She walked past a brightly colored boutique and stepped into a town bar which, being 1:35 in the afternoon, contained only a bartender and a man sitting at a table. 

“I’ll have a cider.” she said, putting cash on the bar and taking the glass from the bartender, who smiled and nodded at her. 

“You wanna watch the game? Come sit here!” the man waived her over and Anna walked over and sat down at this table. 

“Who are we rooting for?” Anna asked.

“Oh I don’t actually know. I just have to watch this.”

“What?”

“It’s sports.”

Anna stared at him.

“I’m a _man_.”

“Okay.” Anna said, figuring it was wise to not press it further. 

“I’m Olaf.” he said, extending a short arm towards her. 

Anna shook it. “Anna.” 

“Well, uh, Anna.” Olaf dropped his voice in a heterosexual way. “When you’re done with your drink, can you slide me the glass?”

“Why?” she said, taking a sip.

“I need it. I’m starting a camp and I’ve only got 4 glasses so far.”

“Like a sleepaway camp?”

“A camp for men. Strong men. Straight dudes doing dude shit. Like cooking beans over an open flame and engaging in negligent fire safety practices. We need beer glasses, so I’ve been here every day.” 

Anna nodded. “Sure, uh, okay.” she took another sip. 

“Well, you’re helping me with a problem so maybe I can help you with one. What’s goin’ on with your life?”

Anna didn’t know if it was wise to spill her problems to this stranger but, well, who else did she have to talk to?

“I’ve come out here with my boyfriend, Hans, who I don’t know if I love or if I just _want_ to love him. We fight all the time, but I also feel like I’m out of time, in terms of finding someone. My sister says that’s ridiculous, but she doesn’t want kids, so her timetable is a bit different. And I feel stupid for being all ‘biological clock this and that’ because of course many people have had kids older than I and it’s been fine, but I still worry because at some point time does run out, and you don’t know when it is. And I don’t want to marry Hans just for the sake of being married to someone, but it feels like I can’t really start living my life until I handle this. It feels like everything else is less important. And, even if things with Hans and I don’t work out, I’m hoping my time out here will at least let me figure out what exactly I do want. I don’t know.” 

Anna sighed and leaned back, then looked up at Olaf, who was still staring at the sports game.

“Well?” Anna eventually pressed.

“I don’t really know what you want from me here.” Olaf said, dropping his voice two octaves for no reason. 

“Advice?”

“I can’t help you with relationship troubles. I’m straight and thinking about dating a dude is gay.”

“Well, thanks for trying.” Anna finished her drink and slid the glass towards Olaf, who tucked it in his cargo pants pocket. 

“Thanks!” he said. “Can you duck when you walk out of here, dear? You’re gonna block the game.”

Anna crouched her way out of the bar and back out into town.

…

She wanted to try something bold, something to demonstrate to Hans that she was willing to have faith in this countryside plan, that she was willing to honestly give this a try. One last big effort. Anna wanted to invest in something for their home together, something they could share. And, she had Hans’ credit card in her purse, which made justifying purchases much easier. 

Anna pushed into a furniture store and was hit with a warm, woodsy scent. The shop was bright and clean, with beautiful wooden furniture arranged throughout. There was an office with the door propped open, plans for a large shop hung up all over the walls. Vanilla candles were on the countertop where a man was ringing up an elderly customer.

“Oh, yeah, sure sure, I’d be happy to do that for you.” 

Anna looked up at the shopkeeper, a tall, strong man with messy blonde hair. He smiled kindly at the old woman and picked up the end table for her, offering her his free arm and walking her outside. 

The shopkeeper passed by a middle-aged man and said, “Barry, how are you! I saw lil Danny hit the home-run last weekend, he’s growing up so fast!”

“Afternoon, Kristoff!” Barry responded. “He really is gettin’ so big, thanks for bringing those snacks!” 

“Of course! Happy to help out the team.” 

Anna smiled at him, feeling secondary warmth off the way he treated other people. Maybe Hans was right about the countryside, maybe she’d been too bitter. Anna walked around, looking at all the furniture, and eventually saw a beautiful queen-sized bed. She ran her hand over the detailing and sighed, thinking how nice it’d be to relax in it.

Kristoff came back into the shop, wiping his hands on his apron and with a soft smile on his face. He stepped behind the counter again and looked brightly out at the shop, reading to help whoever needed it next.

Anna tossed her purse over her shoulder and walked up confidently. “Hi!” she said.

“What the fuck do you want?” he deadpanned. 

“Huh?”

“Why are you in my shop?”

“I-I wanted to get a bed.”

“Okay? Walmart is up the road.”

“I wanted _that_ bed!” Anna protested, pointing.

“You know I made that?”

“I assumed!”

“With my own hands. It’s very precious to me. Everything in this shop is.”

“I’m sorry, did I say something-”

“You’ve said many things. It’s annoying.”

“Wha-?”

“Shut up. Here’s the form.” Kristoff swiveled an iPad towards her, turned it back, put the brightness all the way down, and spun it back towards her. “Don’t waste my electricity. Put your credit card in the machine and I’ll drop it off later.”

“What?”

“Quickly.” Kristoff started pounding his hands on the table in a drum-line rhythm to make Anna speed up. “Go! Go! Go! Go!”

Anna sped filled out the form, punching in the new address she had only just learned and hit the type of bed she wanted, quantity, delivery time, and other specifics. She punched the credit card into the machine feeling the rush of adrenaline.

Kristoff continued yelling “Go! Go! Go! Go!” 

The machine beeped its approval. 

“Why are you still here!!!” Kristoff said, gesturing towards the machine.

“I’m going! I’m going!” Anna ran out of the store and ran back home, wondering if perhaps she’d fallen through the looking glass instead.

…

Anna didn’t tell Hans about the purchase or the interaction with Kristoff, and as a few weeks passed, just enough to turn fall into winter. It had already snowed a couple of times, never more than a few inches. Anna forgot all about the order. Hans did return with furniture - an air mattress, two folding chairs, three bags of pretzels, an inflatable pool, six tubs of cheese puffs, and a 4-in-1 body wash. Anna was too afraid to ask what the fourth thing in the wash was, but it killed her hair texture.

Their relationship was not really doing better, but it also wasn’t getting worse, which was kind of a victory for them. 

Hans had gone on another one of his three hour walks, and Anna was doing a puzzle when she heard a truck pull up. It was Kristoff, with a flatbed truck full of wood. 

“Kristoff!” she said, stepping outside. 

“Back, witch!” he commanded, pointing at her.

“Got a lot of deliveries today?”

“Do not attempt to know me.” he said, backing up towards the furniture. “I gotta assemble them inside, I can't carry them if they’re finished.”

“That’s fine.” Anna said, letting him carry in dozens and dozens of wood pieces.

“Kristoff!” a woman who was jogging waved at him.

“Angie! How are you doing!” he smiled, waving back. “Is your mother feeling better?”

“She sure is!” Angie said. “She loved the soup you brought over, you make such good noodles too.”

“Aw, happy to do it!” Kristoff said. He turned back to Anna. “Demon.” he walked towards the house. “I’ve got to do this quickly, we’re supposed to have a hell of a storm this evening. That I’m sure you caused.”

 _What the…?_ “What’s your problem?”

Kristoff kept carrying in wooden planks. “What problem?”

“Why do you hate me?”

“Okay, that’s all of it. Sign here.” 

Anna signed. “This is a lot of wood, this must be one complicated bed.”

“One?” Kristoff said. “It’s eleven beds”!

“Eleven??” Anna yelled. “No! I only wanted one!”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that? You ordered eleven!”

“No I didn’t!” 

Kristoff showed her the forms she just signed - which showed eleven.

“I must’ve just hit the 1 key twice! Honest mistake!”

“You paid! I delivered! You signed!” Kristoff turned around. “Now I will assemble, and then you will leave me alone forever.” He opened his tool case and started fitting beds together.

“I don’t need eleven beds! I can’t possibly use all of these!” It started to snow outside. “This is too many beds!”

“You ordered and paid for them already! You’re telling me I built all these beds for no reason?” Kristoff said, hands on his hips.

“Yes!”

“No. This is some sort of mind trick. Jezebel.”

“I don’t know who that is but I know it’s an insult.” Anna said. 

“Are you going to help assemble these?” Kristoff asked.

“No! You want me to have 11 beds so bad, you build me 11 beds!” Anna crossed her arms and sat down on the floor. 

“Is that your hexing position?”

“I’m not a witch!!!!!!”

“I didn’t hear a ‘no’!” 

Anna sat quietly and tried to think of any hexes she might latently know, but nothing was coming to mind besides _Harry Potter_ spells, which didn’t seem to work anyway. 

“Can you hand me a wingnut”

“Expelliarmus” Anna said, tossing a screw at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Kristoff said. “This isn’t even a wingnut.”

“I don’t know what that is!” 

“Thousands of years of mystical lore, billions of spells probably, and you can’t even tell a screw from a wingnut…” Kristoff muttered.

“So, Kristoff, since you’re going to be in my home for the foreseeable future, why don’t you tell me something about yourself?”

“No.”

“Where were you born?”

“Top of a mountain, the mountain in question no longer exists.”

“Okay. Was your family from there?”

“They’re trolls. Live underground.”

“What’s your favorite food?”

“I photosynthesize.”

“Are you being difficult on purpose?”

“For sport, mostly.”

“Mostly?” 

“Je ne parle English.” 

Anna threw another piece of metal at him.

“Hey, that’s the wingnut!” 

…

Anna and Kristoff continued bickering - over his building speed, her skills from the devil, whether he should be allowed snacks from the fridge, and over whether ‘any rat bastard idiot would know what a wingnut is’. But alas, Kristoff finally assembled the final bed. 

“Wingnut.” Kristoff said and Anna rolled a screwdriver towards him.

“You’re being stupid on purpose.”

“Just for sport!” she objected. 

“Okay, well this is it. You’ve got your 11 beds, and I’ve got a shop to get back to.” Kristoff stood up, brushed his hands on his pants and nodded at Anna. “If I see any black cats on my way home I’ll know it was you.” 

“I can send much more fearsome animals than that.”

“I’ll see you in hell!”

“You tell them who sent you!” Anna tossed another wingnut at Kristoff who caught it before it hit him in the chest.

Kristoff opened the door to find a wall of snow. “Hm. Don’t recall that being there.” 

“What?” Anna stood up and threw open the curtains to reveal that snow had blacked out the windows. “How is this possible?”

“Oh well you see snow comes from the sky and when it’s really cold you get that sometimes instead of rain-”

“I know how snow works!” Anna yelled. “Well, actually, no I really don’t. But I know it can snow, just-”

“Six hours!” Kristoff looked at his phone. “How have I been here six hours??”

“It was a lot of beds!”

“You did this on purpose! You’re trying to trap me! You’re going to cook me into a stew!”

“Sure am!!!” Anna said, grabbing a wooden spoon from the kitchen. “Come here!”

“No!” Kristoff ran, leaping over beds. 

“You’re the largest man in town, so you can become the most roast beefs!”

“I knew it! I knew it!” Kristoff said, turning up a bed to serve as a barrier between him and a very fearson 5’2” person. (In his defense, she had the big spoon). “You’re going to at least season me well, right?”

“No! I’m going to only use salt, and not enough!”

“Come out!” 

“No! I’m staying here!”

“You can’t sleep there!” Anna objected.

“And why not?”

“Because that’s not the bed with the mattress!”

Kristoff looked around the room at this new fact. It was near 11 pm. They were snowed in. He couldn’t leave even if he wanted too. There were too many beds, but there was only one mattress, even if it was an air mattress. “Fuck.” 

“Getting sleepy, huh?” Anna walked into the kitchen. “And you’ve been working for a long time. I bet you’re hungry.” she pulled out a bag of pretzels from the kitchen and placed one just out of reach, backed up a foot, and placed another, leading a trail.

“Oh, I love pretzels.” Kristoff murmured. He stared at it intently, like a discovery channel fish waiting for a krill to pass by. “Fuck, whatever.” he snatched the pretzel, then stepped out and took the next, and the next, and the next. 

“Great.” Anna said. “Now why don’t we just go to bed, and we can worry about digging ourselves out in the morning.” 

“Give me the bag.” Kristoff held out his hands. 

Anna handed him the bag and collapsed on the bed. “You can sleep on the edge of the mattress, or on the floor like a gentleman.”

“Wait, so you lured me out just to put me on the ground again?”

“Yes. Another sick use of my powers.” 

Kristoff ate a handful of pretzels, then lifted up the mattress and tipped Anna off. He sat down and starfished over the whole thing. “I’m good now, actually.” 

“Nope!” Anna stood on the corner of the mattress and aimed her elbow like she saw someone do in a wrestling match once.

“Hey, wait-”

She jumped.

Kristoff exclaimed ‘OOF!’ but grabbed her and picked her up, caring her over to a blanket and rolling her up in it like a burrito. 

“I can’t even move my arms!!”

“Why don’t you use your satanic powers to get out?”

“For the LAST time-”

“I heard that if you want to know if someone’s a witch you just toss them in a body of water. If they survive, then they are a witch. If they die then, well, you did an oopsie this time.” 

“There’s not a body of water near here, thank God.”

“You have a tub.”

“If you waterboard me I’ll kill you for real.”

“Ooh, big threats from the burrito woman.”

Anna laughed at that in spite of herself and let Kristoff toss her on the bed. He lifted up her head and placed a pillow under it, then laid down, turned his back to her, and went to sleep. Anna wriggled a bit to be looser then fell asleep herself in mere moments.

…

Anna awoke to the sound of the door opening and gasped in excitement. “We’re free!” 

“Anna?” Hans said, holding a shovel. “That storm was insane last night - wait, who is this?”

“Bonjourno” Kristoff said, not even lifting his face from the mattress. 

“Anna - who is this?” Hans said, angrier. 

“It’s not what it looks like.” Anna said calmly. “I ordered a bed but made a mistake and 11 got delivered instead. We got snowed in.”

“Eleven beds and you end up sleeping together?”

“There was only the one mattress”

“Wait, where did you sleep?” Kristoff asked, annoyed that Hans had awoken him more than anything.

Hans turned bright red and stammered for a second.

“You couldn’t have possibly slept outside, you’d have frozen to death. And we don’t have a shovel here, so you had to borrow it from someone. We’ve been here three weeks, it’s not like we’ve got a friend group here.” 

Kristoff laughed for a second. “You’re beet red - what exactly did you do here?”

“I really - I really don’t think it’s appropriate for you to be commenting!”

“I’m gonna go.” Kristoff said, putting on his shoes and jacket. “You two have fun.” he clapped Hans on the shoulder with enough force to buckle the man’s left knee. “You still smell like perfume, just so you know.” 

“You wingnut!” Anna exclaimed, and heard Kristoff laugh just before he closed the door. There was silence, the sound of a truck starting, and then Anna yelled again. “How are you _already_ cheating on me?!”

Hans shrugged. “I didn’t mean for it to be this way, Anna. Honestly. We met on the first day out here, but believe me that was the furthest thing from my mind. I was just so upset - I brought you out here, and already I’d disappointed you. You hated the house, the furniture wasn’t good enough, everything I did wasn’t enough-”

“Hans.” Anna said gently, walking up to him and putting her hand on his shoulder. “Hans, I’m sorry.”

“You - uh, thank you, Anna.” 

“I know you came here with the best intentions. And you try so hard. You always have. I get that I’m not the easiest person to deal with - I can be flighty, insecure. You wanted us to try and rebuild and I didn’t make that easy for you. I should’ve thanked you more. I should’ve done more things for you.”

Hans smiled. “It feels wonderful to hear you say that.”

“Feel better?” Anna asked, hugging him tightly and looking up. 

“Yeah, yeah I do.” he said, looking down at her.

“You absolute _wingnut_!!!” she yelled, pushing him back. 

“Wha-”

“Idiot! Selfish, spoiled, stupid butthead -- rat bastard!” Anna picked up the air mattress and walloped him over the head with it.

“That didn’t even hurt!” 

“Then buy me a real mattress!” Anna said, picking up a pillow and smacking him across the ass. “Get out! We’re through! For good!”

“So you’re giving up, just like that? Your whole life plan? Your children?”

“I’m only giving up on you, idiot bastard!” Anna ran into the bathroom and got the 4-in-1 soap, squirting it all over Hans. "You’re the worst part of my life and it’ll be better just for the sake of having you out of it! Everything else will work out or it won’t.”

“What, you’re gonna stay here? Live your charming little country life?” Hans sneered, wiping soap off his face (the fourth component, it seems, is revenge).

“Fuck no!” Anna said. “I hate it here! I’m going back to the city! I’m going to ride trains! Step in gum! Kiss a pigeon on the beak! _And I’m gonna love it!_ ”

…

Anna didn’t know where Hans slept that night, and she didn’t really care. She couldn’t sleep much herself, rotating between beds and dragging the mattress with her. When the morning came she walked to the town bar and found Olaf sitting there. 

“Good morning, Olaf.” 

“Good morning, Anna!” Olaf said, dumping his beer into a bowl of Lucky Charms that appeared to be only the marshmallows. 

“Does that taste good?” Anna asked. 

“No.” Olaf said, and continued eating.

“Okay. Well, I was wondering how your camp was coming?”

“Great! I’ve picked out a patch of the woods I want to hold it in. I have a cabin almost finished there. Once that is done then I just need the rest of the beer glasses, some fire, and uh a lot of beans I guess.” 

“Where are you all going to sleep?”

“Well, I hadn’t thought about that.” Olaf said. “Dirt, I suppose.” 

“Fun as that sounds, how would you like eleven beds?” Anna said. “I happen to have a bit of a surplus.”

“Oh Anna, really?” Olaf grinned. “That would be as cool as two monster trucks crashing into each other, or catching a fish, or not having to go shopping with the wife!”

“You’re married?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

“But Anna, thank you! I bet Kristoff would be willing to move them for me. You know that guy, so nice, always doing favors for people.”

“Yes.” Anna said. “That has also been my experience with Kristoff.”

“I’m sure.” Olaf said. “That’s so nice of you Anna - I’ll send you photos of our sleepovers!!! I mean, uh, sports nights.” 

…

As Olaf predicted, Kristoff was more than willing to help him out and he came round to Anna’s to pick up the beds later that day. 

“I got bitten by a mosquito today, you know.” Kristoff said, with a tone that implied he very much thought she would know that that happened to him. 

“I sent it over.” Anna nodded. 

“You won’t take me down that easy. I’m making new blood cells as we speak.” 

“Yeah, well, I’m making more mosquitos as we speak.” 

“So, if you’re giving all the beds to Olaf, where are you going to sleep?” Kristoff asked, dropping his line of questioning like a bad prosecutor.

“Well, tonight I’ll just sleep on the air mattress.” Anna said. ‘I’m going back to The City tomorrow. I want to do city girl shit. I don’t like pollen.”

Kristoff laughed. “I’m moving to The City too.” 

“What?”

“Do you want a roommate?” he asked. “I don’t really know anyone there. But I’m looking to expand my shop. I’ve been planning this for a while.” 

Anna looked at this strange, large man who might be slightly insane and definitely thought she was a witch. But, despite everything, he’d made her life the most exciting it’d been in years just over the past few days. “Okay.” Anna said, leaping into this next phase of her life without a plan, without benchmarks, without any real idea of what would come of it. “Okay.”

Kristoff reached out his hand for her to shake and Anna jumped up and wrapped him in a bear hug. “Roomie!!” she squealed. “We can cook beans over the fire together!” 

“I love doing that!” Kristoff said, finding the first thing they would agree on, of many commonalities to come. 


End file.
